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Tag Archives | Cults

Brainwashing by enlightenment drug? Authorities claim that ayahuasca was imbibed as a means of “controlling” the sect’s white-collar ranks. Via NBC News:

Chilean police on Thursday arrested four people accused of burning a baby alive in a ritual because the leader of the sect believed that the end of the world was near and that the child was the Antichrist. The 3-day-old baby was taken to a hill in the town of Colliguay on Nov. 21 and was thrown into a bonfire. The baby’s mother had allegedly approved the sacrifice and was among those arrested.

Authorities said the sect was led by Ramon Gustavo Castillo Gaete, 36, who remains at large. Castillo Gaete was last seen traveling to Peru to buy ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic brew plant that he used to control the members of the rite.

“Everyone in this sect was a professional,” Miguel Ampuero, of the Police Investigative Units, said.

Your teachers’ lives may be more exciting than they seem. Via the Kansas City Star:

Tyler Deaton landed a job in February to teach pre-calculus at Lancaster High School near Dallas. But students Googled and found news stories from Kansas City with allegations that Deaton’s wife, Bethany, 27, was murdered as part of a coverup by a religious cult to hide a series of sexual assaults. The group’s supposed spiritual leader? Tyler Deaton.

Deaton has not been charged in his wife’s death. The person who has, Micah Moore, was part of Deaton’s religious group and lived with the couple at a house in Grandview. Other witnesses told authorities of a group who were making sex part of their religious experience and that men in the group sexually assaulted Bethany Deaton. Moore said Bethany Deaton was killed for fear she would talk, according to court documents.

When word spread through the halls of Lancaster last week, district officials suspended Deaton.

Modern Mormons are only slightly embarrassed about their founder Joseph Smith’s belief in polygamy, but they are definitely freaked out by the very public ban on Black people in their “church.” What do to? Rewrite their “scriptures” of course! NPR reports:

…The two biggest additions to the new edition of Mormon scripture can be found in the book of Doctrine and Covenants, says Givens, a professor of literature and religion at the University of Richmond, and they deal specifically with the church’s original ban on black priesthood ordination and polygamy.

Givens says Joseph Smith himself ordained black members of the church to the priesthood. But after Smith’s death, beginning in the late 1840s, Brigham Young apparently charted a new direction in terms, and began what became known as “the ban,” under which people of African-American ancestry were not permitted to hold the priesthood or to participate in temple ordinances.

A science fiction movie sprung to life — the vast bunker is where Scientology’s elite will hide out when civilization breaks down, and the gigantic etched symbols, visible from above, likely are messages intended for the extraterrestrials who created humanity. Via Live Science:

A secret bunker hidden deep within the deserts of New Mexico is reported to be the “alien space cathedral” of the Church of Scientology, according to a BBC reporter. The site is marked by a large symbol etched onto the desert floor: two diamonds surrounded by a pair of overlapping circles, according to the British newspaper The Sun. A private airstrip, built to serve the controversial church’s leaders, is within walking distance of the symbol.

Journalist John Sweeney claims the church designed the underground site to withstand a nuclear holocaust. Hidden within the complex’s vaults are titanium caskets that hold gold disks inscribed with the original texts of Scientology founder L.

Have rumors of the apocalypse in China triggered mass panic and inspired a bizarre and horrific knifing spree? Or is the Mayan calendar proving useful for Chinese authorities as a scapegoat and justification for crackdown? Via the BBC:

Chinese police have arrested more than 500 members of a doomsday cult for spreading rumors about the imminent end of the world, state media say.

At least 400 followers of the Almighty God Christian group were detained in western Qinghai province in recent days. Dozens more were held elsewhere. China’s state news agency Xinhua describes the Almighty God Christian group as a cult, saying it was established in 1990 in Henan.

In Henan province, six officials have been sacked after a knife attack by a suspected doomsday cult disciple wounded more than 20 children. The attack sparked widespread anger. The officials sacked had handled the incident improperly, state media said.

Youth protection officials from Quebec’s Montérégie region have taken custody of 10 children who had allegedly been living with followers of a self-styled prophet of the apocalypse in Arizona. Border services officials intercepted the children in Vancouver on Monday. The children, who were accompanied by two adults, were heading into Canada from the U.S.

Marcel Pontbriand, a former businessman from Beloeil, Que, who claims he can heal the sick and perform exorcisms, has been living in Marana, Ariz., with his followers and some children. He moved to the Marana area after facing a slew of accusations stemming from an illegal investment scheme he masterminded while living in Quebec.

Mike Kropveld, executive director of Info-Cult — an organization that has been tracking Pontbriand’s activities — said Pontbriand used to operate as healer and claimed to be able to channel spirits while he lived in Beloeil around 1995.

Canada’s CTV News on a bizarre breakaway sect of Mormonism tucked away in a remote Ontario valley, ruled by a violent, domineering man dubbed the “Prophet” who inherited control of the sex cult from his father:

Carol Christie was 18 when she says her mother, an unstable religious fanatic, drugged and manipulated her into “marrying” Stan King, a charismatic preacher more than twice her age. In the early seventies Stan established his own fundamentalist Mormon sect. His followers called him The Prophet.

Carol moved into King’s farmhouse, and joined his legal wife, and two other “church wives” — one of whom was only 14. According to Carol, Stan had a fondness for group sex. And as time passed, she says King bedded three more “wives” ranging in age from 10 to 17.

In 1977, the church started a printing company in Mississauga, Ont. Within five years, King and his followers bought a 200-acre property, a bankrupt ski resort, simply rechristened “The Property.” They planned to build a temple there, high on a hill.

This Saturday, Scientologists in the Los Angeles area are being asked to come to a “confidential briefing” that is so secret, they will be asked to sign special bonds at the door.

At that briefing, they will be told for the first time about major changes coming to the Church of Scientology — changes that we first told you about in June.

What has been rumored for months is actually here: Scientology leader David Miscavige is taking one of the biggest risks of his life and is revealing the alterations he is making to L. Ron Hubbard’s “standard tech.”

But is the Church of Scientology actually ready for his “Golden Age of Tech 2″?

Via the The Underground Bunker, Tony Ortega reveals an email sent out by the Church of Scientology soliciting members to send their children on a recruiting trip on the church’s private cruise ship. Presumably there may be pressure aboard to sign one of those notorious billion-year contracts:

Dear Young Scientologist or Scientology Parent,

I wanted to make sure you were informed about an incredible convention we are holding for young Scientologists. Enjoy 7 days of action-packed, fun-filled excitement in the Caribbean while you attend specially created seminars designed to help you achieve your goals more easily.

SEMINARS WILL TEACH YOU:

• How to talk Scientology with your non-Scientologist friends.
• How to achieve your goals more easily using a precise LRH tool design for this purpose.
• How to create a successful second dynamic that forwards your expansion across your dynamics.
• How to motivate yourself in life and actually achieve what you want without too much effort.